Clothes dryer

ABSTRACT

A CLOTHES DRYER HAVING A DRUM PROVIDED WITH A PLURALITY OF CLOTHES TUMBLING BAFFLES EXTENDING PARALLEL TO THE AXIS OF THE DRUM AND SUBSTANTIALLY THROUGHOUT THE FUILL LENGTH THEREOF. AT LEAST AN OPPOSED PAIR OF BAFFLES ARE PROVIDED WITH FINS PROJECTING FROM THE BAFFLE RADIALLY TOWARD THE AXIS OF THE DRUM AND EXTENDING AXIALLY THROUGHOUT SUBSTANTIALLY LESS THAN THE LENGTH OF THE DRUM. THE FIN AND BAFFLE COMBINATION PROVIDES A DESIRED TUMBLING EFFECT.

Sept. 20, 1911 J. R. HUBBARD ETAL 3,605,281

CLOTHES DRYER Filed 001.. 2, 1969 INVENTORS MAME) '9. #0831440 ilk/ER M [ilk/0J1 J4.

United States Patent Office 3,605,281 CLOTHES DRYER James R. Hubbard, Moorestown, N.J., and Elmer W.

Zearfoss, In, Philadelphia, Pa., assignors to Philco- Ford Corporation, Philadelphia, Pa.

Filed Oct. 2, 1969, Ser. No. 863,195 Int. Cl. F26b 11/02 US. Cl. 34-133 3 Claims ABSTRACT OF THE DISCLOSURE A clothes dryer having a drum provided with a plurality of clothes tumbling baffles extending parallel to the axis of the drum and substantially throughout the full length thereof. At least an opposed pair of bafiles are provided with fins projecting from the baffle radially toward the axis of the drum and extending axially throughout substantially less than the length of the drum. The fin and bafile combination provides a desired tumbling effect.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION This invention is concerned with household laundry apparatus, particularly laundry dryers of the kind having a clothes containing drum rotatable about a horizontal axis. It has been known in the art to provide bafiles extending parallel to the axis of the drum and substantially throughout the full length thereof, this practice being desirable for manufacturing reasons and from the standpoint of drum strength. It has also been known to produce criss-cross tumbling, that is movement of clothes from end-to-end of the drum, by using short bafiles spaced axially of the drum. Such a drum presents manufacturing difficulties since it frequently lacks rigidity.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION It is our objective to eliminate previous difficulties, and We accomplish this by the use of fin-like members extending from a full length baflle radially toward the axis of the drum. This construction is particularly advantageous where such members are located in drum corner portions, since such disposition of the fins strengthens the drum and, in addition, has the unobvious advantage that it enables the dryer to produce proper tumbling over a wider spectrum of clothes loads varying, for example, from heavy loads to loads comprising only one or two articles. Specifically, we have found that providing each of a pair of opposed full length battles with a fin extending along and presented radially from the bafile toward the drum axis, particularly where the fins are located toward the drum end walls, renders the machine capable of producing adequate tumbling without the criticality of speed requirement usually imposed by variations in clothes load. With former full length bafile arrangements the speed of drum rotation has been somewhat critical, particularly where the batfies were of the limited radial extent imposed by manufacturing considerations. The result has been that the desired tumbling of the clothes could be interfered with by such small speed variation as occur for example from variations in line voltage, differences in pulley tolerances, or belt tightness. Our apparatus overcomes this difiiculty.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWING In the accompanying drawings,

FIG. 1 is a perspective illustration of a laundry dryer of the horizontal axis type with which the invention is concerned;

FIG. 2 is a side sectional-elevational view showing portions of the dryer of FIG. 1 on a larger scale;

3,605,281 Patented Sept. 20, 1971 FIG. 3 is a somewhat diagrammatic view, on an intermediate scale, showing a rear elevational view of a drum embodying the principals of this invention;

FIG. 4 is an enlarged sectional view taken along line 44 applied to FIG. 2;

FIG. 5 is a view on a larger scale of a forwardly located fin member appearing in FIG. 2;

FIG. 6 is a sectional view taken along the line 6-6 applied to FIG. 2; and

FIG. 7 is a view similar to FIG. 5 and illustrating the rearwardly located fin member used in the drum member of FIG. 2.

DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENT With initial reference ot FIGS. 1 to 3, the illustrated laundry dryer 10 comprises a cabinet 11 provided with a rotatable drum 12 having a forward wall 12a and a rear wall 12b. The forward wall has an access opening which confronts the forward face of the cabinet. The cabinet is provided with an opening 13 (FIG. 1) aligned with the opening in drum 12 and across which is disposed a door 14 swingably mounted upon thecabinet by use of any conventional hinging means (not shown). It will be understood that a suitable latch would be provided to hold the door 14 in closed position.

The drum 12 is cylindrically formed of imperforate steel sheet with several indentations, in this case four, comprising identical bafiles 15 formed directly in the drum cylinder wall and extending axially of the drum throughout the length thereof. This known construction minimizes cost. However the depth, or extent of radial presentation, of the baflies is limited by manufacturing considerations. The baflles referred to are clearly illustrated in FIGS. 2 and 3. Y

The drum is rotatably mounted Within the cabinet 11 in any convenient manner, for example, through the agency of pads or bearing members 16 which may comprise polytetrafluorethylene, or the like, and which, at the front of the machine, are adapted to support an outturned flange 17 which forms part of the forward wall 12a of the drum and defines its access opening. The door 14 includes a hollow plug section 18 which has a vertically extending perforated panel which confronts the open side of the drum. Resisistive heater means shown diagrammatically at 19 is provided to heat the air which dries the clothes. It will be understood that the apparatus would further include motor means for rotating the drum, for example through the agency of a belt 20 which surrounds the drum, and air propelling means, shown somewhat diagrammatically at F, for moving the air upwardly past the heater 16, thence through a central perforated portion of the rear wall 12b of the drum and in contact with clothes contained therein. As shown by arrows designating air flow in FIG. 2, the circulating air exits from the drum through perforations provided in the above-mentioned vertical wall of the door, flows downwardly through the door past lint collecting means shown at 21, and thence returns through the lower portion of the cabinet toward the heater 19. Since the apparatus for rotating the drum and causing circulation of air is Well known, and may be conventional in nature, illustration of the motor and drive means is not required.

In particular accordance with this invention, and with initial reference to FIG. 2, it will be seen that each of a pair of upper and lower bafi'le members, shown respectively at 15:: and 15b, are provided with fin-like extensions 22 and 23, one of which is disposed adjacent the forward wall of the drum and the other of which is disposed adjacent the rear wall of the drum. The fins may be formed as an integral extension of the baflle. However,

as shown, they may for simplicity of manufacture comprise individual members formed, for example, of suitable heat resistant and reinforced plastic material secured to the baffle by screws or the like.

The size and shape of the fins, particularly as to length along the baffle, location within the drum, and radial extension, are factors arrived at through considerable experiment. It will be noted that the forward end 22a of the upper fin 22 includes a projecting portion configured to extend toward the door opening and a base portion that lies closely adjacent to the flanged wall structure 12a which defines the forward wall of the drum. Similarly the lower fin 23, as shown in FIG. 2, has a rear edge portion which adjoins the drum end wall 12b. This construction prevents trapping of the clothes between the fins and the drum end walls.

In an embodiment which has achieved very good results, the overall diameter of the drum was about 28%", and the axial distance from the drum back wall to the back vertical surface of the door which closes the drum was about 20". Upper and lower fins which achieved very satisfactory clothes tumbling, and introduced no criticality as to drum speed, each measured 8 along the line of contact with the adjacent baffle, that is, slightly less than half the drum length. The fins have their maximum radial extension in the region of the adjoining drum wall, and slope toward a lesser radial extension at a point spaced from the drum wall. The maximum radial extension of the fins from the adjoining baffles was 3 /2, a distance about equal to the radial extension of the bafiles.

In practice, the composite bafile and fin structure of this invention is not subject to entanglement of the clothes, a difliculty which is commonly encountered under high load conditions and when drying fabrics of considerable area. A collateral advantage of the fin extensions of this invention is that, under light loads, the garments are free to tumble rather than continuously engaging the baffies. In the past it was common to promote free tumbling of the clothes through the drum by increasing the speed of rotation, thereby reducing the entanglement. However, this resulted in other difliculties and effected little improvement under low load conditions.

Summarizing, with fin extensions dimensioned and located in accordance with our invention, good tumbling is achieved over a wide range of clothes loads and at a variety of rotational speeds.

We claim:

1. In a laundry machine of the kind including a vented horizontally rotatable drum for containing fabrics to be dried, and means for passing drying air through said drum as it is rotated, means insuring adequate tumbling of fabrics within the drum while minimizing tangling of the same, saidlast means-comprisingraplurality-of baffles carried by the drum wall in general parallelism with the drum axis and disposed substantially diametrically opposite one another within the drum, each said baffle extending substantially throughout the axial length of said drum, and projecting from the wall thereof gen-. erally radiallytoward said axis; and means defining a" pair of fins each of which is carried by and projects from a corresponding one of saidbafiies generally radially toward said axis, said fins being disposed substantially diametrically opposite one another within thevdr um and? extending in a direction parallel to the axis of said drum a distance no greater than one-half the drum length, the fin carried by one of said baffles being contiguous the forward wall of the drum and the fin carried by the opposite baffie being contiguous the rearward, wall of said drum. v

2. A laundry machine in accordance with claim 1, and further characterized in that the maximum radial ex: tension of each said fin from the adjacent baffle is approximately equal to the radial extension of the supporting baffle.

3. In the laundry machine of the kind including a vented cylindrical drum for containing fabrics to be dried and rotatable about a generally horizontal axis, said machine further including provision for passing air through said drum as it is rotated, the improvement which comprises means for insuring adequate tumbling of fabrics within the drum while minimizing-tangling of the same, said means comprising: a pair of bafiles formed in diametrically opposed portions of the cylindrical wall of the drum and projecting inwardly of the drum in a radial plane, each baffie extending substantially throughout the length of the drum; and structure defining a pair of fins each of which projects as an ex-' tension from a corresponding one of said baffles radially toward said axis, one said fin being located in a forward drum corner portion and the other said fin being located in a rearward drum corner portion, and both fins extending in the direction of the length of the drum a distance less than half said length.

References Cited UNITED STATES PATENTS I 2,737,729 3/1956 Engel 34 133 2,827,276 3/195 Racheter 34-133); 3,020, 48 2/1962 Strike 34-133 3,364,588 1/1968 Ziegler 34-133);

EDWARD J. MICHAEL, Primary Examiner 

